Courtesans and Opium Read online

  “How much will it cost?”

  “At least two forty-percent discounted notes for each of them before they’ll show you any mercy. Oh, and there’s one other case that I haven’t told you about. There’s someone named Guo Xueyou who’s sent around a note demanding four silver dollars from each house.”

  “Who is he?”

  “He’s either a stipendiary or a licentiate, I’m not sure which. A couple of years ago he was a pigeon,3 a big player in the first-class houses. He had a heap of money, which he’s completely run through, and now he’s learned to play the villain himself. He writes up legal charges for other people and provokes lawsuits in order to collect the fees. This spring he held a banquet at the Yuanxingtang in Ganquan that cost him a lot of his own money. In his case we have no choice but to respond. He’s already spoken to me twice about it, and if we don’t give him the money, I’m afraid he’ll come here himself. He has such a huge opium habit that, once he lights up, goodness knows how many of those little packets of yours he’ll go through. And if you fall just a tiny bit short in your attentions, he’ll launch a vicious attack on you. In my opinion, you’ll just have to do these things. You ought to send him two notes at a twenty percent discount. I’ll still have to go and plead poverty for you, and even so, I can’t be sure that he’ll agree.”

  “These last few days I really haven’t had any money. I’ve missed a dozen payments on the high-interest loan I took up with that out-of-town lender. The day before yesterday I spoke to him about working out some arrangement, and he allowed me to pay him the day after tomorrow. So please hold these ones off for two more days. I’ll see to them as soon as I’ve repaid the loan.”

  “You don’t expect old Bi and Bao Qiong to wait, do you? Why, if they were cooking shrimp, they couldn’t wait for it to turn red! Let me put up the money for you, and for Guo Xueyou’s note as well.”

  “Even better. Thank you.”

  “With regard to those cards you received from swindlers, you need to fit the gratuity to the person. Big ones get a lot, small ones get little. Even if you don’t recognize the names on the cards, you can’t say so. You just have to work out a standard amount for them, lest one small thing mushroom into all kinds of problems—another case of losing a lot to save a little. If you’re not doing any business, go and buy a cockerel today and sacrifice it tonight, hold a celebration, and then tomorrow morning pluck up your spirits and struggle along one day at a time. Providing you put your trust in heaven, your business will turn the corner. Cleaning up your personal debts—that can be left until later. Just now you’re carrying so much debt that you’re like someone riding a tiger—you can’t get off. Think about it. Am I right or not?”

  “You’re right, of course, but with business the way it is, how am I going to get by?”

  “What owner of a house doesn’t have debts? If they all fretted about them the way you do, they’d worry themselves to death!”

  “How much did breakfast and lunch come to?”

  “Over seven thousand cash.”

  “It’s just as they say, ‘You shut your door and sit quietly at home, and disaster strikes from the sky.’ It’s like bumping into an old man on the street and causing his death.”

  “Oh, there’s something I almost forgot to tell you. Another funny thing has happened. Bai Shixin told me that he wants you to help him out, which is an indirect way of asking for a reward. I chuckled to myself, but I couldn’t very well turn him down. I agreed to meet him in a day or two. You’ll need to give him a small tip.”

  As they spoke, Fang Sheng, the local warden, came looking for Qiang Da. On hearing Yu Jiafu’s voice, he walked in and greeted the two men.

  “Well, Warden Fang, what brings you here?” asked Yu Jiafu. “What do you have to tell us?”

  “There are two things. First, I’ve come about what happened last night. I’m still concerned about it, and I’m here to ask some questions. Second, this morning old Bi came to ask me about it, and just as I was having tea with him, Bao Qiong brought in a petition. I told them both to wait until last night’s trouble had been settled, when someone would of course come and talk to them. They left after drinking tea that cost me several dozen cash. I brought the petition over here before noon, but I didn’t find Qiang Da in, so I’ve come back again.”

  “What happened last night has already been settled, but thank you for your concern,” said Yu Jiafu. “I’ll be meeting old Bi and Bao Qiong on the Parade. You certainly won’t be put to any trouble. Qiang Da, bring me a hundred cash.” Qiang Da fetched the money and put it on the table, and Yu Jiafu handed it to Fang Sheng. “Take this in return for this morning’s tea, and then in a few days’ time you should get Qiang Da to treat you,” he said.

  “My friendship with Qiang Da goes back a long way. I’m indebted to him for help in many things. If I asked him for money for everything I do for him, I’d hardly be a friend.”

  “Very well, then. If I have to put it this way, let’s say I am the one who’s providing the tip.”

  Fang Sheng picked up the money and took his leave.

  Lucky was preparing the opium for Yu Jiafu when Sanzi walked in and said, “Miss Lucky, Master Wei is here.”

  “You mean the one who came to the party yesterday?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Off you go,” said Yu Jiafu. “Put in a request and make up for the money and jewelry they took away from you last night.”

  “I’ll leave you for a moment, godfathers,” she said with a smile. “Please excuse me.”

  Qiang Da was about to call for another courtesan to prepare the opium, but Yu declined: “Don’t bother. I’ll do it on my own.” He smoked a while, satisfying his habit, then took up the petitions and left with the runners. He found Bi Qingjia at the Bamboo Heater teahouse on the Parade and joined him at his table. “I don’t mean to be critical, old friend,” he said, “but you’re already receiving gratuities from Qiang Da’s house at festival time, and now you want him to help you out on top of that. Even if he failed to do you some favor or other, you should have come to me about it. How could you be so thoughtless?”

  “I do get a few cash from him at festivals, but that’s your generosity, not his. I was in a tight spot a few days ago, so I called on him for help, and he turned up his nose at me. That’s why I played this trick on him.”

  “There’s no need to say any more. Here’s a note. Look, do me a favor, will you? From now on let’s have an understanding about this sort of thing.”

  Bi Qingjia looked at the note in his hand, which was for four hundred and eighty cash, and clicked his tongue in disappointment. “Fourth Brother, this is too little!”

  “Don’t tell me it’s too little. I’m the one who’s putting up the money.” He handed back the petition. “This must have cost you all of one penny!” Bi Qingjia took charge of it, after which he and Yu Jiafu bowed to each other and parted.

  Yu Jiafu also found Bao Qiong. “Brother Bao,” he began, “when you were trying to get money recently, you weren’t at all fair! You take money at the festivals, and on top of that you go and cause trouble with your petition. You’re depriving the owner of any chance of making a go of it!”

  “Don’t blame me, Fourth Brother. Qiang Da has forgotten his beginnings as a house handyman. Now that he’s an owner and has made some money, he looks down on all the rest of us. The way he took that pipe in the Willow Lane opium parlor the other day was the last straw! I really did want to clip his wings. And I don’t want any more favors from him at festival time.”

  “I don’t mean to offend you, Brother, but you shouldn’t talk like that. If you get no more favors from this or that house, where will you go for gratuities?” He took out a note for three hundred and twenty cash and handed it to Bao Qiong together with the petition. “Here, go and smoke some opium. From now on let’s have no more of this uncalled-for behavior.”

  Bao Qiong took the note and the petition and, glancing at the amount on the note, said,
“Please forgive me,” gave a deep bow, and left. Yu Jiafu then went in search of Guo Xueyou, to deal with his demand.

  If you are wondering what happened, please turn to the next chapter.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Inside her red silk curtain a beauty is startled by a strange dream;

  In the Temple of the White-Robed, Guanyin issues a fortune slip.

  Jia Ming and his brothers had been enjoying a banquet at Qiang Da’s house on Ninth Lane when they were disturbed by You Deshou and his followers. Before parting for the night, they had arranged to meet the following morning at the Futura teahouse on the Parade. Arriving at the teahouse one after the other, they ate their breakfast and then went to the Hill Garden bathhouse at the top of Ridge Street to take a bath and have their heads shaved. Then they went on to the Chaoyanglou restaurant for lunch, and afterward arranged to attend introductory tea parties at several first-class brothels, the Shuangshoutang on Ridge Street, the Tianqingtang at the Stone Arch, Xiong Baoyu’s at Hongshuiwang, and the Shuangqingtang in Shui’aoli. Their day was filled with music, song, and beautiful women.

  In the afternoon, as they walked along Left Garrison Street,1 they saw a large plum-red printed notice on the doorway of the money shop owners’ guildhall. “Red Plum Hall,” the notice said in thick black ink. Beneath it was a small square sheet of plum-red paper bearing the words “Please Enter.” Lu Shu wondered what it meant and asked Jia Ming, “What is this place? And why did they stick that piece of paper up there?”

  “Let me explain. This is the money shop owners’ guildhall. A few cultured fellows hold their meetings here in order to play riddles—to use the popular term.”

  “Oh, we have the same sort of thing back home, and I know a bit about it, too. Why don’t we go in and pay our respects?”

  “Since you’re so keen, let’s all go in,” said his companions. After first deferring to each other, they entered the gate. Once inside, they noticed that the eaves of the main hall and the posts of the walkways were strung with a hemp cord to which several hundred slips of Hanglian paper, an inch wide and a foot long, were attached with bamboo pegs. On each slip seven large characters were written, and below them there were some notes in a small hand as well as a red personal seal and a small red stamp with words such as “brush,” “ink,” “calligraphy,” “painting,” “letter paper,” “inkstone,” “tea,” and “incense.” A number of people were standing about looking at the slips. Some were nodding and hesitating, while others were whispering together in twos and threes. The newcomers walked up to the front of the main hall, where they received a welcome and bowed in response. Then they stood beside the middle steps and gazed upward.

  Thirty-two slips were pegged to the hemp cord.2 For some time the newcomers stood gazing at the riddles. Lu Shu, who was racking his brains, noticed one that read, “Only gold can help in a crisis” and “New Book” in the annotation below it. “What sort of book is this ‘New Book’?” he whispered to Jia Ming.

  “It’s an almanac.”

  Lu Shu heard a visitor call out, “I have a suggestion,” so he did the same. When someone responded from the main hall, he asked in a loud voice, “Is ‘Only gold can help in a crisis’ ‘No sacrifices on yin days’?”3

  “Correct,” said the president of the society. He removed the peg from the cord and handed the slip to Lu Shu, and since the red stamp said “writing brush,” he also gave him a writing brush. He then replaced the slip with a new one and attached it with the peg.

  Lu Shu was looking at other slips when he heard Jia Ming call out: “Is ‘Don’t lust after women if you want to reduce bad karma’ ‘No planning, no achievement’?”4

  “Yes,” said the president. He took down the slip and handed it together with a roll of letter paper to Jia Ming, then put up a new slip in its place.

  Lu Shu continued to puzzle over the other riddles, but Wu Zhen, who thought the men from the night before might have returned and done further damage at Qiang Da’s, was more concerned about Cassia. He also didn’t understand the principle behind the riddles, so he pulled Jia Ming and Lu Shu away. “There’s no need to solve all these puzzles, brothers. Come on, let’s go.”

  Jia Ming could hardly ignore him. He bowed to the president and thanked him. “Not at all,” replied the president.

  They left the guildhall and chatted as they walked along. “The best of the Zhaoyang type is ‘Brokenhearted, I ask about my husband’s illness,’”5 said Jia Ming.

  “In the New Composition type there’s none better than ‘A true heart is handed down to posterity,’”6 said Lu Shu.

  “Of all the later ones in the Cao E type, none can equal ‘Yellow pongee, youthful wife, maternal grandson, ground in a mortar,’”7 said Jia Ming. “Nowadays few people use that type.”

  “In the Su-Huang8 type, even the best ones can’t equal ‘A man of Qi had a wife and a concubine,’” said Lu Shu.

  “In Yangzhou these days more people are doing riddles based on direct correspondence,” said Jia Ming. “The one you guessed just now was an example of that. But when all’s said and done, a riddle is just a riddle,9 a minor literary game rather than real scholarship.”

  The sun was setting as they arrived at Qiang Da’s house, still deep in their discussion of riddles. Wu Zhen invited them upstairs, where Sanzi greeted them and invited them into Cassia’s room and the maid served tea and replenished the tobacco. Sanzi called all of the courtesans in, and when they had paid their respects, Cassia told a servant to light the opium lamp for Wu Zhen.

  “I had four or five puffs after lunch today at the Tianqingtang, and that’s enough for me,” said Wu Zhen. The guests then asked what had happened the previous night.

  “Don’t ask!” said Cassia. “Shortly after you left, several dozen men arrived with lots of torches and forced their way in, then smashed up much of the latticework and furniture. We upstairs people took refuge in the cellar, but Miss Lucky, Master Wei’s favorite, didn’t manage to get away in time. They seized her and grabbed all her hairpins, earrings, and bracelets as well as a silver dollar and a note that she had in her purse. Fortunately there was a man here called Bai who was having an introductory tea, and he got down on his knees in front of You Deshou and his men and persuaded them to let her go. Master Yu has been to the Parade today to make it up to them by inviting them to a dinner, and the boss has had to pay seven or eight strings of cash to settle the matter. Sister Lucky has been crying continuously since last night. It’s a good thing Master Wei is here. Master Wei, do try to calm her nerves by spending a few taels on a little jewelry for her.”

  Wei Bi glanced at Lucky’s disheveled hair, which she had still not combed. “‘The wind blows eggshells away / Our money’s gone but we are gay.’ Tomorrow I’ll see that all that jewelry you lost is replaced. What style would you prefer?”

  “Oh, whatever appeals to you. I’m not set on any particular style, just so long as I can wear it. I’m not in the least fussy about things like that.”

  As they were talking, Jia Ming winked at Phoenix and walked out of the room. She caught his meaning and followed him. “Do you have anyone in your room?” he asked.

  “No,” she said, as she invited him in. Maid Gao offered tea and tobacco. Jia Ming waited until the maid had left before taking six silver dollars from the purse at his waist and handing them to Phoenix. “I hope you won’t mind,” he said, “but I suspect that those earrings you’re wearing are brass and the pendants are imitation jade. Take this money and get someone from the house to buy you a pair of silver earrings and have them gilded, and also a pair of flattened-circle jade pendants. But first he should order you a pair of silver bracelets. With what little is left buy a couple of packets of opium to roast, then try to carry on as best you can. So long as I’m able to afford it, I’ll make a practice of helping you out.”

  “Master Jia,” said Phoenix, as she accepted the money, “we’ve been thrown together purely by chance, you and I, and this generous gift of yours
comes just when I need it the most. If I manage to do a little better, I’ll certainly remember this.”

  “Such a little thing, really, it’s hardly worth mentioning. There’s no need to talk about it in front of other people.”

  “Oh, I would never be so foolish! Would you like to smoke, Master Jia? I’ll call someone in to light the lamp.”

  “There’s no need. I won’t smoke.”

  After some casual conversation, they returned to Cassia’s room.

  At this point Sanzi came in and announced: “Gentlemen! Your host is inviting you to have dinner here this evening.”

  “Yesterday we were disturbed by those hooligans and scoundrels and weren’t able to enjoy ourselves to the full,” explained Jia Ming. “Tonight I’ll play the host.” He turned to Sanzi: “Please order exactly the same dishes as yesterday, and also invite Miss Fragrance over as soon as possible.” Sanzi went off to fetch her, while the guests and courtesans bantered and cracked jokes with one another. After some time Fragrance arrived, greeted everybody, and took her seat. Candles were lit and the table set. Each courtesan had her patron, and they sat in the same places as the night before. Then they played guess-fingers, drank wine, sang songs, and enjoyed a boisterous celebration—far more exhilarating than the previous night. By the time they broke up they had thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were pleasantly inebriated.